Watershed Restaurant, Margaret River

Good Morning,

Gosh what amazing weather we are having here in Margaret River, the night is cool, but still too warm for the feather doona, the sea is still warm enough for 'me' to swim in... the water is like swimming in champagne... the day's still warm with little wind!

My Duck & luvly glass of Watershed 'Shades' Merlot, April 2013

I thought I would write a tribute for Watershed. It has become one of my favourite places to eat and to take visitors. And, that is because of the quality of their wines and meals, the consistency and the views.

Barramundi with Scallops, photo taken by Sam, eaten by Sam

I was just reading their words on their website, they call Watershed....'the Margaret River Watershed Premium Wine Project'. They run a massive vineyard, have their own winery, which produces enough volume to send internationally. They have a beautiful and friendly cellar door. There is a 'not so' simple cafe where you can just pop in have a hamburger with the kids, or you can enjoy their restaurant which, as I said before has become one of my favourites.

There is a lot of blue sky to breath in from the restaurant deck 2012

I took my girlfriend Sam there for lunch yesterday, I couldn't attend her birthday some months ago because of 'the feet', so hopefully this was a way of making that up to her.

Watershed

We decided to forgo the entree for a dessert. Our mains were delicious. The produce is always fresh and mostly local. I had duck breast on a sage pappardelle with semi dried cherries, yum... I can still conjure the flavour of spices that were used to infuse the duck. Sam had the market fish (I was more interested in my duck and actually didn't pay attention to what her fish was, will update later.) You can see from the photo that, that also was delish. We both laughed at how we pulled out the iphones and took photos of our meals! Oh.. and the dessert.... we didn't have time for photos... chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

Inside the dining room

That's our lunch, I went with visitors from Perth, also to celebrate a birthday

Now, one of the reasons I felt prompted to write this little tribute, is because, Watershed offer a number of premium wines, and they start at what I would call 'reasonable' prices. It does get up my nose when you go to a restaurant of the winery, and have to pay double the cost of the wine from their cellar door. At Watershed, one of the cheapest wines on their menu is a  Watershed 2010 'Shades' Merlot (which is what we chose), the price of that was $19.95 for the bottle. In the cellar door it was $16.95 a bottle. That is very reasonable for a restaurant of that calibre, and it is a yummy wine. Sam bought me bottle as a gift after we had finished our meal. 

The Cellar Door

That kind of pricing attitude should be commended. And, if that is the quality of their cheaper wines, what is the quality of the the premium wines?? I may be lucky enough one day to find out.

Watershed Cellar Door

The other thing I love about Watershed is the view and their building which is designed to take in the view. I love winter and watching the storms arrive from the ocean and race across the Cape to head inland to greater Australia on its journey to our eastern states. It all starts here weather wise. You can be seated in the comfort of a lovely stone building, glass of wine in hand and watch it all happen outside. I love the design of the vineyard and how the vines drift down to the lake below. I think that is the classic viticulture strategy maintaining constant temperatures amongst the vines.

Cape Leeuwin looking north, that is all beautiful clean, unpolluted air blowin off that ocean, and Watershed is just over the hill (figuratively speaking) 

Well done Watershed...... Cath
http://www.watershedwines.com.au/